PM/AM: Sarcasm or Security Threat?

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics' morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.

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The internet is home to threats real and fake, and it can be hard for government organizations to follow up on every single one. According to Nextgov, the secret service is now asking for an automated service to help comb twitter and weed out "sarcasm and false positives." Essentially, this requested service will help government agencies flag tweets as sarcastic and help prevent security bottlenecks.

The Washington Post also adds that other tools include "the ability to identify social media influencers, analyze data streams in real time, access old Twitter data and use heat maps" and that detecting sarcasm is only one facet of their proposal.

Perhaps you can thank this software for preventing any unwanted knocks on your front door from suit- and sunglasses-wearing government types, though 140 characters is probably not the best venue for your anti-establishment manifesto anyway.

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